Their path is clearly marked: Borussia Dortmund want to crown a superlative season by winning the DFB Cup on 21 May. Until then, there are still nine points to be picked up in the Bundesliga, something BVB would gladly do.

Should everything run according to plan, then the Black and Yellows will have bagged 83 points after 34 rounds; the club has never achieved a higher points tally. Matches against VfL Wolfsburg, Eintracht Frankfurt and FC Cologne seem, on first appearances, to be thoroughly winnable.

For BVB, however, the forthcoming opposition always appears to take second place in the team's thinking. Julian Weigl summed up their approach in this way: "We always want to put in the best performance we can. Everyone on the pitch to a man wants to do that." And goalkeeper Roman Bürki chipped in: "We want to win every remaining game." Similar utterances were to be heard from Matthias Ginter, who explained: "We will continue to attempt to win every game, so that we go into the cup-final with pluck and confidence."

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Involved in every goal at Stuttgart: Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

It was clear in Saturday's 3-0 victory in Stuttgart that the men from Dortmund are taking this intention very seriously. A 16-8 shots on goal ratio, 54% success rate in the tackle, 54% possession, 117 kilometres run compared to 115 - except for fouls committed and misplaced passes, BVB were ahead in all the statistics that mattered.

"You can only give praise to the boys for playing as they did. We ran hard, and the goals game as a consequence", lauded Sporting Director Michael Zorc. Thomas Tuchel said: "We have been making a few changes, but, despite fixtures on Thursday, then Sunday, Wednesday and then Saturday, the team has put in a series of excellent performances."

Shinji Kagawa (21') and Christian Pulisic (45') quickly got the team on course for an away victory in the first half. While the Japanese tucked away his fourth goal in his last six Bundesliga games, the American was also busy setting a new record: At 17 years, seven months and five days old, Pulisic is the youngest player in the history of the Bundesliga to score twice in a season.

Record for Christian Pulisic

Henrikh Mkhitaryan subsequently put the game to bed in the second half (56'). The Armenian had already set up the first two goals before taking his goal involvement statistics even higher (11 goals, 18 assists). In all competitions, he has been involved in 53 goals (23 goals scored, 29 assists). "He made the difference again today", stated Michael Zorc.

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Adrian Ramos did not score in Stuttgart, but set up the third goal.

"You can not have got 74 points after 31 games through luck. We have got 18 to 20 players whom 16 other Bundesliga clubs would love to get their mitts on", said BVB boss Hans-Joachim Watzke.

BVB lie now 29 points in front of Schalke

In the table, everything is as it was. Bayern Munich are likely to win the title next match-day. A 20 point chasm then stretches between Borussia and berth number three in the standings. There remain 29 points between BVB and their neighbours in the Ruhr from Gelsenkirchen - never before has the difference between the two teams been greater.

Thomas Tuchel: "I know that people are already pretty certain about where the title will go. We can only influence how we perform as a team, and we gladly do that in our own special way. We must keep wanting more, we must maintain this consistency and fervour, we must keep wanting to perform. If you do that, everything else just falls into place." The team would be then worthy winners on 21 May in Berlin. (fu)